Othello, William Shakespeare
Othello, William Shakespeare
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Othello

Author: William Shakespeare, Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Narrator: a full cast

Unabridged: 2 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/14/2019

Categories: Fiction, Drama

Synopsis

PASSIONATE LOVE IN A PREJUDICED WORLDIn Shakespeare’s most intimate tragedy, director Bill Rauch explores racism, religious bias, xenophobia, and the more disturbing aspects of relationships in the context of our society’s ongoing struggle with polarizing differences.Consumed by their bigotry, those who praised the Moorish general Othello’s military successes now reject his marriage to Desdemona. The newlyweds are determined to overcome all obstacles, but Othello’s assignment in an exotic new location draws them into the web of his lieutenant Iago, whose resentment and demons know no bounds.

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1616), English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, is the most widely known author in all of English literature and often considered the greatest. He was an active member of a theater company for at least twenty years, during which time he wrote many great plays. Plays were not prized as literature at the time and Shakespeare was not widely read until the middle of the eighteenth century, when a great upsurge of interest in his works began that continues today.

About Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Established in 1935, the Tony Award–winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival offers an eight-month season with a wide-ranging playbill of eleven productions, including Shakespeare, American classics, musicals, contemporary works, and world premieres. Plays originating at OSF have gone on to be produced by many regional theaters, and its productions have been recognized and honored nationally. In 2011, the Blackstone Audio and Oregon Shakespeare Festival collaboration of Hamlet was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

About Bill Rauch

Bill Rauch became OSF’s fifth artistic director in 2007, after several seasons at the Festival as a guest director. In a total of fourteen seasons there, he has directed five world premieres and sixteen other plays.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on January 13, 2020

I have always admired this play as Shakespeare's most theatrical tragedy, but I also feel that it often veers too close to melodrama. Shaw remarked that Othello is written "in the style of Italian opera," and it shares with Verdi and Donizetti the same big emotions, the same clear demarcation of goo......more

Goodreads review by Dr. Appu on July 01, 2023

Othello is considered not only the greatest of Shakespeare's tragedies but also the timeliest. This might be a play written hundreds of years ago, but all the themes discussed in it are even entirely relevant today. We can see multiple manipulation levels, betrayal, jealousy, and even racism in this......more

Quotes

“An accessible and moving production…Chris Butler gives a beautifully specific performance that wrings every ounce of passion and pain from Othello’s excruciating descent into hell…An effective score and modern sound effects reinforce the striking contemporary relevance of a play so shot through with xenophobia, racism, and misogeny…This recording offers a decidedly American alternative to the more typical British-inflected renditions, making it of special interest to students as well as listeners who may have been put off by Shakespeare in the past.” Booklist

“[The] dual qualities of timeliness and timelessness are underscored by Bill Rauch’s sinewy and bracingly fast-moving production.” Boston Globe on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2018 theatrical production of Othello

“A haunting production…Othello is a very well done piece of theater that is quite sad and tragic—true—but it leaves the audience with much to ponder.” Siskiyou Daily News on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2018 theatrical production of Othello

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